Xiang Xiaohan, Tanaka Masahiro, Umeno Satoru, Kikuchi Yutaka, Kobayashi Yoshihiko
Institute of Agricultural Machinery, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO), Saitama, Japan.
Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2024 Sep 25;12:1418775. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2024.1418775. eCollection 2024.
Fatigue is a major cause of low back pain for workers in various fields, including industry and agriculture. It has a negative impact on workers' safety, decreases their productivity, and causes a reduction in their occupational career. An exoskeleton is expected to be a solution for reducing workers' fatigue. However, assessing the safety and effectiveness of exoskeletons, except for the direct measurement of electromyography (EMG) in the human body, is challenging in real-case scenarios. Recently, simulations have been widely used to estimate biomechanical variables. Thus, we aimed to develop a method that combines an exoskeleton model and human body simulation to evaluate the effects of exoskeletons on lumbar fatigue. The strength and tendency estimated using this method are similar to those obtained from EMG devices in symmetrical repetitive lifting tasks. In addition, this method can be used to predict and simulate fatigue after a recorded motion. Our findings will help guide manufacturers in designing their products.
疲劳是包括工业和农业在内的各个领域工人腰痛的主要原因。它对工人安全有负面影响，降低他们的生产力，并导致其职业生涯缩短。外骨骼有望成为减轻工人疲劳的一种解决方案。然而，在实际场景中，除了直接测量人体肌电图（EMG）外，评估外骨骼的安全性和有效性具有挑战性。最近，模拟已被广泛用于估计生物力学变量。因此，我们旨在开发一种将外骨骼模型与人体模拟相结合的方法，以评估外骨骼对腰部疲劳的影响。使用该方法估计的强度和趋势与在对称重复提举任务中从肌电图设备获得的结果相似。此外，该方法可用于预测和模拟记录动作后的疲劳情况。我们的研究结果将有助于指导制造商设计他们的产品。
